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WASHINGTON — The Senate blocked a bid Friday to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in protest of President Trump’s recent selection of housing regulator Bill Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence.
Despite needing a simple majority to advance, the Senate voted 52-47 against opening debate on a three-year extension of the warrantless electronic surveillance authority.
Seven Republicans — Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt of Missouri, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rich Scott of Florida and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama — voted with 45 Democrats against advancing the extension
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the only member of his party to back Section 702, which will lapse at 11:59 p.m. June 12 absent congressional approval.
The provision authorizes spy agencies to ingest vast amounts of foreign communications intercepted over the internet without a court order. National security officials describe the haul as an indispensable trove to search for intelligence on adversaries and terrorists.
Section 702, however, has been the subject of more than a decade of tension between security hawks and civil libertarians demanding a warrant requirement for incidentally collected records on US citizens.
Democrats explicitly attributed the failed Friday vote to Pulte, and senior party leaders who helped pass FISA extensions in the past, such as Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.), withheld their support.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blasted Pulte ahead of the vote, calling him “a hack who does Trump’s bidding, no matter how egregious that bidding might be.”
While surveillance authorities generally get reauthorized despite congressional posturing and brinksmanship, it’s unclear how the impasse over Pulte might end.
The 38-year-old Floridian has served since last March as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and concurrently as chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Pulte has built a reputation as a fierce Trump loyalist known for big ideas — such as a flopped plan for 50-year mortgages and a successful push for the feds to buy $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities to lower rates and boost affordability.
He also has fired off criminal referrals calling on the Justice Department to prosecute various Democrats, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, for mortgage fraud for incorrectly claiming second properties as their primary residence.
In March, Pulte also sought charges against James for allegedly lying on mortgage insurance forms.
Trump defended his appointment of Pulte on Thursday, telling reporters, “I wasn’t greatly experienced in national security, and I think I’ve done a really great job with it.”
“He’s very smart. He’s a person that has got high integrity. He’s done a phenomenal job at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. You probably have a trillion dollars in value there. When he took over, it was much less,” the president said during a press availability in the Oval Office.
Trump added that Pulte’s role is “not a permanent position,” adding: “We’re interviewing people right now, but it’s somebody just to take it over for a little while.”
There is precedent for Trump putting a hard-charging loyalist in the role — which outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard will vacate on June 30.
During Trump’s first term, acting director Ric Grenell served as acting DNI between February and May 2020.
Grenell, known for ruthless social media put-downs, had spent two years as ambassador to Germany, where he strong-armed Berlin into scrapping a valuable Russian natural gas pipeline project.
In May 2020, Grenell was replaced by Senate-confirmed John Ratcliffe, who now serves as CIA director. Trump’s confidence in Ratcliffe has made him a key point person for the president during the ongoing Iran war, often eclipsing Gabbard.
The FISA tension may give Republican civil libertarians a better shot at introducing warrant requirements — an idea that’s been rejected by party bosses ever since whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed the National Security Agency’s mass collection of data in 2013.
“I’ve been surveilled by the government multiple times, along with so many other Americans. We can’t give the swamp unchecked power to spy on law-abiding Americans,” tweeted Scott. “Warrants MUST be required to protect our constitutional liberties and uphold the Fourth Amendment. I voted against an extension because I want real REFORM and ACCOUNTABILITY, not the status quo.”
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